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Chopping Spree: 09/04/13

Chopping Spree by Diane Mott Davidson is the 11th book in the Goldy Bear catering series. It is also the only one not performed by Barbara Rosenblat. As I didn't want to revisit familiar characters with a different voice, I read the book in print.

Goldy's catering service is taking off. It's the first time ever that she's earned enough money to think about splurging on things. Her now teenage son, Arch, has taken notice and has been bitten by the consumer bug. He wants an expensive guitar for his birthday. Goldy, feeling guilty for all their tight years as a single mother, agrees begrudgingly to get it for him after her catering gig at the new mall is complete.

Goldy also needing to pick up her gratuity after the investors' dinner at the mall, stumbles upon her employer among a heap of shoes. Before she do anything about it (like call 911), she's clonked on the head.

In fact, Goldy gets clonked on the head a lot in this book. When she's not being clonked on the head, she's drinking espresso — by the gallon it seems.

The mystery here revolves around problems with the mall construction. I think the inclusion of a mega mall in the otherwise rural / ski and hiking oriented Aspen Meadow area made believing the events of this book less plausible. Maybe too, it was the change in medium from audio to paper.

Then there was Arch's personality. He's usually a good, quiet kid who gets obsessed on his current hobby. Here, he's interested in music but he's so demanding. It's not like him and his personality change seemed mostly there for the sake of motivating the earliest chapters of the mystery.